Your Right to Know

The city of Dublin wants everyone who lives in the 205 houses that ring the Muirfield Village
Golf Club course — and all of their partygoers — to behave during the Presidents Cup tournament
this fall. And to ensure that they do, the city is asking the property owners to get a permit to
hold a party during tournament time.

During the annual Memorial Tournament each spring, course officials work closely with homeowners
who stage events. That’s especially because for the Memorial, the course-side property owners can
pay to get the fence cut, allowing their guests easy access to the action.

Not so for the Presidents Cup, which is shaping up to be more tightly controlled.

Though there will be no charge for the permits that allow Presidents Cup merry-making on private
property, the city does have the right to reject the permit or to shut down the party if rules are
not followed. Before approval, the police want to know such things as the “target audience,” the
parking plan, how many inflatables there will be, the kilowatt power of generators and whether
there will be any bands.

If there is a party, though, exercise some restraint: The permit says the fun must be over by 9
each night.Moving forward, the city says, permits will be needed during the Memorial, too.

• • •

Good writing matters.

A poorly worded resolution caused a brief grammar smackdown during a Delaware County Board of
Commissioners meeting on Monday and almost prevented a small, rural town from getting new
sidewalks.

Ken O’Brien, the president of the board, questioned the way a request for bids for the project
was worded, calling the request confusing.

County Administrator Tim Hansley and Economic Development Director Gus Comstock said that
because the village of Ostrander had written the request, they couldn’t rewrite it. They said
companies submitting bids for sidewalk work would understand what to do.

The subject of debate was a short paragraph that said prospective bidders could either email the
village to get bid documents or call the project engineer. O’Brien worried that the language told
bidders to call the engineer, after they’d already submitted their bids, to get additional
information about the project.

His concerns prompted a lengthy discussion about good writing.

Hansley said bidders would understand.

“If you read that with some common sense, you would clearly understand that there are two ways
to get the documents,” he told O’Brien.

The commissioners ended up changing the wording to clarify that, and Ostrander’s sidewalks were
saved.